"The message is clear: The Democratic Party puts politics ahead of unity, victory, and the safety of our troops. And that makes a Democrat like me furious with my own party's childish, selfish, dangerous behavior. It's time for Democrats who are sick of such shenanigans to speak up and repudiate these clowns."...
I agree. Also, OSC has a good point about the administration being too soft on the Saudis. We need credibility on nat'l security. The Saudi threat needs to be addressed. It seems like a prefect match to me. Making public their anti-American activities as OSC suggests seems like a great 1st step.
read the whole thing
http://www.ornery.org/essays/warwatch/2005-01-30-1.htmlBy Orson Scott Card January 30, 2005
Rice, Iraq, and Saudi Subversion
additional excerpts:
..."So we are walking a tightrope in our relationship with Saudi Arabia. We have no choice but to live with the present Saudi government for the sake of oil supply and prices -- and noninterference with American military activity in Iraq.
Yet Saudi Arabia is actively supporting murder, espionage, and sabotage in America.
...
In other words, what I'm advocating is openness. Let us require that the people distributing Wahhabist doctrines be listed as agents of the Saudi government -- it's the truth, and if they aren't ashamed of what they're doing, there should be no problem. We don't have a national policy of murdering people because of religious disagreements.
And the publications themselves should be intelligible to non-readers of Arabic. Let them have full freedom of speech -- as long as the rest of us are free to see what they're saying.
The only penalty, then, would be for concealing their activities or illegally hiding their words behind the Arabic alphabet and language.
If the Saudi government can't tolerate daylight on their activities in America, that's a confession that they are intent on secretly subverting America while pretending to be our ally.
Meanwhile, Americans should be slow to judge their Muslim neighbors -- for them, the threat of murder is very real, and open opposition to these publications and ideas would surely set them up. One lone person speaking up against them would be extremely dangerous.
Requiring openness will make it easier for moderate Muslims to act in large numbers to oppose these subversive publications. If they are not just individuals, but the large mass of American Muslims acting together, they can far more easily show that they have embraced the American Constitution and all its liberties by rejecting all such anti-American and criminal propaganda and ceasing to tolerate it within their mosques. "
As I said, GO READ THE WHOLE THING.